Information about Ancient History
“Ancient” redirects here. For other uses, see Ancient (disambiguation).
- The times before writing belong either to protohistory or to prehistory.
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of human history until the Early Middle Ages[1]. The goal of the modern day critical ancient historian is objectivity. The term classical antiquity is often used to refer to ancient history since the beginning of recorded Greek history in about 776 BC. This coincides roughly with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome.
Although the ending date of ancient history is disputed, currently most Western scholars use the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 as the end of ancient European history. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 – 5,500 years, with Sumerian cuneiform being the oldest form of writing discovered so far. Thus, this is the beginning of history by the definition used by all historians.
The study of ancient history
The fundamental difficulty of studying ancient history is the fact that only a fraction of it has been documented and only a fraction of those recorded histories have survived into the present day. It is also imperative to consider the reliability of the information obtained from these records. Literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, so there were few people capable of writing histories. Even those written histories which were produced were not widely distributed; the ancients, not having the luxury of a printing press had to make copies of books by hand.The Roman Empire was one of the ancient world most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. For example, Livy, a Roman historian who lived in the 1st century BC, wrote a history of Rome called Ab Urbe Condite ("From the Founding of the City") in 142 volumes while historians have accounted for only 35 volumes. As for records during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire many were altered or falsified to serve certain political interest.[2]
Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world: archaeology and the study of primary sources.
Archaeology
Main article: ArchaeologyArchaeology is the excavation and study of artifacts in an effort to interpret and reconstruct past human behavior. In the study of ancient history, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. Some important discoveries by archaeologists studying ancient history include:
- The Egyptian pyramids - giant tombs built by the ancient Egyptians beginning around 2600 BC as the final resting places of their royalty.
- The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Lothal in South Asia.
- The city of Pompeii - an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD 79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a valuable window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans and the Saminites.[3]
- The Terracotta Army - the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China.
Primary sources
Perhaps most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquity's own historians. Although it is important to take into account the bias of each ancient author, their firsthand (or primary) accounts, are the basis for our understanding of the ancient past. Some of the more notable ancient writers include: Valmiki, Vatsyayana, Vyasa, Kalidasa, Chanakya, Sun Tzu, Herodotus, Josephus, Livy, Polybius, Suetonius, Tacitus, Thucydides, Sima Qian and Moses.Chronology
Prehistory
- early human migrations
- Lower Paleolithic—Homo erectus spreads across Eurasia. Controlled use of fire from ca. 800 kya.
- c. 100 kya—Homo sapiens evolves in Africa
- c. 70-60 kya—Modern humans migrate out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reach Australia
- c. 50 kya—Modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East
- c. 40 kya—Europe first reached by modern humans
- c. 15 kya—Americas first reached by humans
- 10th millennium BC—Invention of agriculture is the earliest given date for the beginning of the ancient era
- 7th millennium BC—Jiahu culture began in China
- 5th millennium BC—late Neolithic civilizations, invention of the wheel and spread of proto-writing.
- 4th millennium BC—Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine
- 4th millennium BC—Sumerian cuneiform, history's oldest writing system.[4]
History
Some important events:Bronze Age and Early Iron Age
Bronze Age through to the Early Iron Age- 3300 BC—Bronze Age begins in the Caucasus[5]
- 3200 BC—Cycladic Civilization Greece
- 3200 BC—Rise of Proto-Elamite Civilization
- 3100 BC—Skara Brae Scotland
- 3100 BC—First dynasty of Egypt
- 3000 BC—Jiroft civilization Begins
- 3000 BC—Rise of the Nile Valley civilization
- 3000 BC—First known use of papyrus by Egyptians
- 2800 BC—Kot Diji phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
- 2800 BC—Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period in China
- 2700 BC—Minoan Civilization ancient palace city Knossos reach 80.000 inhabitants
- 2700 BC—Rise of Elam in Iran
- 2600 BC—Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley civilization (in present-day Pakistan and India) begins
- 26th century BC—Completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza
- 2070 BC—Yu the Great established the Xia Dynasty in China
- 2000 BC—Domestication of the horse
- 1700 BC—Indus Valley Civilization comes to an end but is continued by the Cemetery H culture; The beginning of Poverty Point Civilization in North America
- 1600 BC— Mycenaean Greece
- 1600 BC—The beginning of Shang Dynasty in China, evidence of a fully developed Chinese writing system
- 1600 BC—Beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region
- 1500 BC—Composition of the Rigveda is completed
- 1200 BC—The Hallstatt culture
- c. 1200 BC—Theorized time of the Trojan War
- c. 1180 BC—Disintegration of Hittite Empire
- 1046 BC—The Zhou force (led by King Wu of Zhou) overthrow the last king of Shang Dynasty; Zhou Dynasty established in China
- 1000 BC—Mannaeans Kingdom Begins
- 800 BC—Rise of Greek city-states
- 776 BC—First recorded Olympic Games. The history of the Games is believed to reach as far back as the 13th century BC but no older written record survives.
Classical Antiquity
- 753 BC—Founding of Rome (traditional date)
- 745 BC—Tiglath-Pileser III becomes the new king of Assyria. With time he conquers neighboring countries and turns Assyria into an empire
- 728 BC—Rise of the Iranian Median Empire
- 722 BC—Spring and Autumn Period begins in China; Zhou Dynasty's power is diminishing; the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought
- 700 BC the construction of Marib Dam in Arabia Felix
- 653 BC—Rise of first Persian state of Iran
- 612 BC—Attributed date of the destruction of Nineveh and subsequent fall of Assyria.
- 600 BC—Sixteen Maha Janapadas ("Great Realms" or "Great Kingdoms") emerge. A number of these Maha Janapadas are semi-democratic republics.
- c 600 BC—Pandyan kingdom in South India
- 563 BC—Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism is born as a prince of the Shakya tribe, which ruled parts of Magadha, one of the Maha Janapadas
- 551 BC—Confucius, founder of Confucianism, is born
- 549 BC—Mahavira, founder of Jainism is born
- 546 BC—Foundation of the Persian Empire and unification of Iran by Cyrus the Great
- 546 BC—Cyrus the Great overthrows the Lydian kingdom
- 544 BC—Rise of Magadha as the dominant power under Bimbisara.
- 539 BC—The Fall of the Babylonian Empire and liberation of the Jews by Cyrus the Great
- 525 BC—Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt
- c. 512 BC—Darius I (Darius the Great) of Persia, subjugates eastern Thrace, Macedonia submits voluntarily, and annexes Libya, Persian Empire at largest extent
- 509 BC—Expulsion of the last King of Rome, founding of Roman Republic (traditional date)
- 500 BC—Panini standardizes the grammar and morphology of Sanskrit in the text Ashtadhyayi. Panini's standardized Sanskrit is known as Classical Sanskrit
- 500 BC—Pingala uses zero and binary numeral system
- 490 BC—Greek city-states defeat Persian invasion at Battle of Marathon
- 475 BC—Warring States Period begins in China as the Zhou king became a mere figurehead; China is annexed by regional warlords
- 424 BC—Nanda dynasty comes to power.
- 404 BC—End of Peloponnesian War between the Greek city-states
- 331 BC—Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela
- 326 BC—Alexander the Great defeats Indian king Porus (Purushottama) in the Battle of the Hydaspes River.
- 321 BC—Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha
- 323 BC—Death of Alexander the Great
- 305 BC—Chandragupta Maurya seizes the satrapies of Paropanisadai (Kabul), Aria (Herat), Arachosia (Qanadahar) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)from Seleucus I Nicator, the Macedonian satrap of Babylonia, in return for 500 elephants.
- 273 BC—Ashoka the Great becomes the emperor of the Mauryan Empire
- 257 BC—Thục Dynasty takes over Việt Nam (then Kingdom of Âu Lạc)
- 250 BC—Rise of Parthia (Ashkâniân), the second native dynasty of ancient Iran
- 232 BC—Death of Emperor Ashoka the Great; Decline of the Mauryan Empire
- 230 BC—Emergence of Satavahanas in South India
- 221 BC—Qin Shi Huang unifies China, end of Warring States Period; marking the beginning of Imperial rule in China which lasts until 1912. Construction of the Great Wall by the Qin Dynasty begins.
- 207 BC—Kingdom of Nan Yueh extends from North Việt Nam to Canton
- 202 BC—Han Dynasty established in China, after the death of Qin Shi Huang; China in this period officially becomes a Confucian state and opens trading connections with the West, i.e. the Silk Road
- 202 BC—Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Battle of Zama
- c 200 BC—Chera dynasty in South India
- 185 BC—Sunga Empire founded.
- 149 BC-146—Third and final Punic War; destruction of Carthage by Rome
- 146 BC—Roman conquest of Greece, see Roman Greece
- 111 BC— First Chinese domination of Việt Nam in the form of the Nanyue Kingdom.
- c 100 BC—Chola dynasty rises in prominence.
- 49 BC—Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great
- 44 BC—Julius Caesar murdered by Marcus Brutus and others; End of Roman Republic; beginning of Roman Empire
- 6 BC—Earliest theorized date for birth of Jesus of Nazareth
- 4 BC—Widely accepted date (Ussher) for birth of Jesus Christ
- 9—Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Imperial Roman Army's bloodiest defeat
- 14—Death of Emperor Augustus (Octavian), ascension of his adopted son Tiberius to the throne
- 29—Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
- 68—Year of the four emperors in Rome
- 70—Destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus.
- 117—Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan
- 192—Kingdom of Champa in Central Việt Nam
- 200s—The Buddhist Srivijaya Empire established in the Malay Archipelago.
- 220—Three Kingdoms period begins in China after the fall of Han Dynasty.
- 226—Fall of the Parthian Empire and Rise of the Sassanian Empire
- 238—Defeat of Gordian III (238–244), Philip the Arab (244–249), and Valerian (253–260), by Shapur I of Persia, (Valerian was captured by the Persians).
- 280—Emperor Wu established Jin Dynasty providing a temporary unity of China after the devastating Three Kingdoms period.
- 285—Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Empires
- 313—Edict of Milan declared that the Roman Empire would be neutral toward religious worship
- 335—Samudragupta becomes the emperor of the Gupta empire
- 378—Battle of Adrianople, Roman army is defeated by the Germanic tribes
- 395—Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlaws all pagan religions in favour of Christianity
- 410—Alaric I sacks Rome for the first time since 390 BC
- c. 455—Skandagupta repels an Indo-Hephthalite attack on India.
- 476—Romulus Augustus, last Western Roman Emperor is forced to abdicate by Odoacer, a half Hunnish and half Scirian chieftain of the Germanic Heruli; Odoacer returns the imperial regalia to Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno in Constantinople in return for the title of dux of Italy; most frequently cited date for the end of ancient history
End of ancient history in Europe
The date used as the end of the ancient era is entirely arbitrary. The transition period from Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity. Some key dates marking that transition are:- 293—reforms of Roman Emperor Diocletian
- 395—the division of Roman Empire into the Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire
- 476—the fall of Western Roman Empire
- 529—closure of Platon Academy in Athens by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I
Some prominent civilizations of ancient history
Southwest Asia
Ancient Mesopotamia
Ancient Persia
- Proto-Elamite
- Elam
- Jiroft Kingdom
- Medes
- Achaemenid Empire
- Parthia
- Sassanid Empire
- Scythia and Scythians
- Persepolis
Ancient Phoenicia
Ancient Armenia
Ancient Arabia
- See also: and
Ancient Israel/Palestine
Africa
Ancient Egypt
- Main article: Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt developed over at least three and a half millennia. It began with the incipient unification of Nile Valley polities around 3500 BC and is conventionally thought to have ended in 30 BC when the early Roman Empire conquered and absorbed Ptolemaic Egypt as a province. (Though this last did not represent the first period of foreign domination, the Roman period was to witness a marked, if gradual transformation in the political and religious life of the Nile Valley, effectively marking the termination of independent civilisational development).
The civilization of ancient Egypt was based on a finely balanced control of natural and human resources, characterised primarily by controlled irrigation of the fertile Nile Valley; the mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions; the early development of an independent writing system and literature; the organisation of collective projects; trade with surrounding regions in east / central Africa and the eastern Mediterranean; finally, military ventures that exhibited strong characteristics of imperial hegemony and territorial domination of neighbouring cultures at different periods. Motivating and organising these activities were a socio-political and economic elite that achieved social consensus by means of an elaborate system of religious belief under the figure of a (semi)-divine ruler (usually male) from a succession of ruling dynasties and which related to the larger world by means of polytheistic beliefs.
- See also: Egyptians
South Asia
A poltical map of the Mauryan Empire, including notable cities, such as the capital Pataliputra, and site of the Buddha's enlightenment.
The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 3300–1700 BC, flourished 2600–1900 BCE), abbreviated IVC, was an ancient civilization that flourished in the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra river valleys primarily in what is now Pakistan and western India, parts of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. Another name for this civilization is the Harappan Civilization, after the first of its cities to be excavated, Harappa. Although the IVC might have been known to the Sumerians as Meluhha, the modern world discovered it only in the 1920s as a result of archaeological excavations.
The Rigveda, in Sanskrit, goes back to about 1500 BC. The Indian literary tradition has an oral history reaching down into the Vedic period of the later 2nd millennium BC. Ancient India is usually taken to refer to the "golden age" of classical Hindu culture, as reflected in Sanskrit literature, beginning around 500 BC with the sixteen monarchies and 'republics' known as the Mahajanapadas, stretched across the Indo-Gangetic plains from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. The largest of these nations were Magadha, Kosala, Kuru and Gandhara. Notably, the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata are rooted in this classical period.
The births of Mahavira and Buddha in the 6th century BC mark the beginning of well-recorded Indian history. Around the 5th century BC, the northern Indian subcontinent was invaded by the Achaemenid Empire and the Greeks of Alexander's army. Amongst the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the kingdom of Magadha rose to prominence under a number of dynasties that peaked in power under the reign of Ashoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. During the reign of Asoka, the three Tamil dynasties of Chola, Chera and Pandya were ruling in the south. These kingdoms, while not part of Asoka's empire, were in friendly terms with the Maurya Empire. The Satavahanas started out as feudatories to the Mauryan Empire, and declared independence soon after the death of Ashoka (232 BC). Other notable ancient South Indian dynasties include the Kadambas of Banavasi, western Ganga dynasty, Chalukyas of Badami, Chalukyas, Hoysalas, Kakatiya dynasty, Pallavas, Rashtrakutas of Manyaketha and Satavahanas.
The period between 320CE–550 is known as the Classical Age, when most of North India was reunited under the Gupta Empire (ca. 320CE–550). This was a period of relative peace, law and order, and extensive achievements in religion, education, mathematics, arts, Sanskrit literature and drama. Grammar, composition, logic, metaphysics, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy became increasingly specialized and reached an advanced level. The Gupta Empire was weakened and ultimately ruined by the raids of Hunas (a branch of the White Huns emanating from Central Asia). Under Harsha (r. 606–47), North India was reunited briefly.
The educated speech at that time was Sanskrit, while the dialects of the general population of northern India were referred to as Prakrits. The South Indian coast of Malabar and the Tamil people of the Sangam age traded with the Graeco-Roman world. They were in contact with the Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, and the Chinese. [7]
India is estimated to have had the largest economy of the world between the 1st and 15th centuries CE, controlling between one third and one quarter of the world's wealth up to the time of the Mughals, from whence it rapidly declined during British rule.
East Asia
- Ancient China
- Ancient Japan
- Ancient Korea
- Mongols
- Huns
- Ancient Vietnam
Ancient China
By the end of the 2nd millennium BC, the Zhou Dynasty (周朝) began to emerge in the Yellow River valley, overrunning the Shang. The Zhou appeared to have begun their rule under a semi-feudal system. The ruler of the Zhou, King Wu, with the assistance of his uncle, the Duke of Zhou, as regent managed to defeat the Shang at the Battle of Muye. The king of Zhou at this time invoked the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule, a concept that would be influential for almost every successive dynasty. The Zhou initially moved their capital west to an area near modern Xi'an, near the Yellow River, but they would preside over a series of expansions into the Yangtze River valley. This would be the first of many population migrations from north to south in Chinese history.
Europe and Mediterranean
Classical Antiquity
Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many rather disparate cultures and periods. "Classical antiquity" typically refers to an idealized vision of later people, of what was, in Edgar Allan Poe's words, "the glory that was Greece, the grandeur that was Rome!" In the 18th and 19th centuries reverence for classical antiquity was much greater in Western Europe and the United States than it is today. Respect for the ancients of Greece and Rome affected politics, philosophy, sculpture, literature, theatre, education, and even architecture and sexuality.
In politics, the presence of a Roman Emperor was felt to be desirable long after the empire fell. This tendency reached its peak when Charlemagne was crowned "Roman Emperor" in the year 800, an act which led to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire. The notion that an emperor is a monarch who outranks a mere king dates from this period. In this political ideal, there would always be a Roman Empire, a state whose jurisdiction extended to the entire civilised world.
Epic poetry in Latin continued to be written and circulated well into the nineteenth century. John Milton and even Arthur Rimbaud got their first poetic educations in Latin. Genres like epic poetry, pastoral verse, and the endless use of characters and themes from Greek mythology left a deep mark on Western literature.
In architecture, there have been several Greek Revivals, (though while apparently more inspired in retrospect by Roman architecture than Greek). Still, one needs only to look at Washington, DC to see a city filled with large marble buildings with façades made out to look like Roman temples, with columns constructed in the classical orders of architecture.
In philosophy, the efforts of St Thomas Aquinas were derived largely from the thought of Aristotle, despite the intervening change in religion from paganism to Christianity. Greek and Roman authorities such as Hippocrates and Galen formed the foundation of the practice of medicine even longer than Greek thought prevailed in philosophy. In the French theatre, tragedians such as Molière and Racine wrote plays on mythological or classical historical subjects and subjected them to the strict rules of the classical unities derived from Aristotle's Poetics. The desire to dance like a latter-day vision of how the ancient Greeks did it moved Isadora Duncan to create her brand of ballet.
The Renaissance discovery of Classical Antiquity is a book by Roberto Weiss on how the renaissance was partly caused by the rediscovery of classic antiquity.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is the period in Greek history lasting for close to a millennium, until the rise of Christianity. It is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western Civilization. Greek culture was a powerful influence in the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe.The civilization of the ancient Greeks has been immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, art, and architecture of the modern world, fueling the Renaissance in Western Europe and again resurgent during various neo-Classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and The Americas.
"Ancient Greece" is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times. It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but also to areas of culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus and the Aegean islands, the Aegean coast of Anatolia (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of Colchis, Illyria, Thrace, Egypt, Cyrenaica, southern Gaul, east and northeast of the Iberian peninsula, Iberia and Taurica.
During its twelve-century existence, the Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to a vast empire. It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through conquest
and assimilation. However, a number of factors led to the eventual decline of the Roman Empire. The western half of the empire, including Hispania, Gaul, and Italy, eventually broke into independent kingdoms in the 5th century; the eastern empire, governed from Constantinople, is referred to as the Byzantine Empire after AD 476, the traditional date for the "fall of Rome" and subsequent onset of the Middle Ages.
Ancient Rome
The Americas
Notes
1. ^ [1]
2. ^
3. ^
4. ^
5. ^
6. ^ Artak Movsisyan, Hnaguyn Petut’yunĕ Hayastanum–Aratta (Yerevan: Depi yerkir 1992) 41.
7. ^ (Bjorn Landstrom, 1964; Miller, J. Innes. 1969; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973; & Koder S. 1973; Leslie Brown, 1956
8. ^ Carvings may rewrite history of Chinese characters China View
2. ^
3. ^
4. ^
5. ^
6. ^ Artak Movsisyan, Hnaguyn Petut’yunĕ Hayastanum–Aratta (Yerevan: Depi yerkir 1992) 41.
7. ^ (Bjorn Landstrom, 1964; Miller, J. Innes. 1969; Thomas Puthiakunnel 1973; & Koder S. 1973; Leslie Brown, 1956
8. ^ Carvings may rewrite history of Chinese characters China View
Bibliography
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id="CITEREFDiamond1999">Diamond, Jared (1999), Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York: Norton.
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id="CITEREFKristiansenLarsson2005">Kristiansen, Kristian & Thomas B. Larsson (2005), The Rise of Bronze Age Society, Cambridge University Press
- Eyewitness Testimony, Elizbeth Loftus, Harvard, (1996)
- Decoding Ancient History : A toolkit for the historian as detective, Carol G. Thomas, D.P. Wick, Prentice Hall. (1993)
- Changes in the Roman Empire: Essays in the Ordinary, Ramsay Mac Mullen, Princeton (1993)
- Greeks and the Irrational, E. R. Dodds, U of Calif Press (1964)
- History of Magic and Experimental Science, Lynn Thorndike (1923)
- Enemies of the Roman Order: Treason, Unrest & Alienation in the Empire, Ramsay Mac Mullen, Harvard (1966)
- Directory of Ancient Historians in the USA
- The Idea of History, R.G. Collingwood (1946)
- What is History?, E.H. Carr (Becker 1931, Loftus 1996, Mac Mullen 1990, Thorndike 1923, Mac Mullen 1966, Thomas & Wick 1993)
- Project Livius. Articles on Ancient History
- Libourel, Jan (1973). "A Battle of Uncertain Outcome in the Second Samnite War". American Journal of Philogy 94 (1): 71. Retrieved on September 2007.
- Lobell, Jarrett. "Etruscan Pompeii". Archaeological Institute of America 55 (4 date =July/August 2002). Retrieved on September 2007.
-
id="CITEREFKristiansenLarsson2005">Kristiansen, Kristian & Thomas B. Larsson (2005), The Rise of Bronze Age Society, Cambridge University Press
See also
- Ancient music and Timeline of trends in music to 1899
- Ancient philosophy
- Ancient warfare
- Classical Antiquity
- Classics
- Digital Classicist
- Human evolution
- Historiography
- Prehistoric civilizations
- Prehistoric man
External links
- Ancient Civilizations - British Museum's website on various topics of ancient civilizations
- Ancient History Timeline
- CyberSleuthKids: Ancient civilizations
- killeenroos.com
- MacroHistory - large database of articles covering most of recorded history, and a single, unified timeline of historical events worldwide.
- socialstudiesforkids.com
- The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ancient may refer to:
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- Ancient history — the span of recorded history starting roughly 5,000–5,500 years ago.
- Ancient (band) — the melodic black metal musical group.
- Ancient (company) — the Japanese software developer (see also: Yuzo Koshiro).
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Writing, is the representation of language in a textual medium; that is with the use of signs or symbols. It is distinguished from illustration such as cave drawings and paintings, and recording language via a non-textual medium such as magnetic tape audio.
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Protohistory refers to a period between prehistory and history, during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted its existence in their own writings.
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Prehistory (Latin, præ = before Greek, ιστορία = history) is a term often used to describe the period before written history. Paul Tournal originally coined the term Pré-historique
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Early Middle Ages are a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly the five centuries from AD 500 to 1000.[1]
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Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
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8th century BC - 7th century BC
800s BC 790s BC 780s BC - 770s BC - 760s BC 750s BC 740s BC
779 BC 778 BC 777 BC 776 BC 775 BC
774 BC 773 BC 772 BC 771 BC 770 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-
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800s BC 790s BC 780s BC - 770s BC - 760s BC 750s BC 740s BC
779 BC 778 BC 777 BC 776 BC 775 BC
774 BC 773 BC 772 BC 771 BC 770 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-
Events and trends
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8th century BC - 7th century BC
780s BC 770s BC 760s BC - 750s BC - 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC
759 BC 758 BC 757 BC 756 BC 755 BC
754 BC 753 BC 752 BC 751 BC 750 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-
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780s BC 770s BC 760s BC - 750s BC - 740s BC 730s BC 720s BC
759 BC 758 BC 757 BC 756 BC 755 BC
754 BC 753 BC 752 BC 751 BC 750 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
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Events and trends
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Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea.
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Western culture or Western civilization is a term used to generally refer to most of the cultures of European origin and most of their descendants. It comprises the broad, geographically based, heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs (such as religious
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Decline of the Roman Empire, also called the Fall of the Roman Empire, or the Fall of Rome, is a historical term of periodization for the end of the Western Roman Empire.
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Anno Domini (Latin: (In)The year of (Our) Lord[1]), abbreviated as AD or A.D., defines an epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
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5th century · 6th century
440s 450s 460s 470s 480s 490s 500s
473 474 475 476 477 478 479
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440s 450s 460s 470s 480s 490s 500s
473 474 475 476 477 478 479
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Sumerian ( EME.GIR15
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Cuneiform
Child systems Old Persian, Ugaritic
Unicode range U+12000 to U+1236E (Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform)
U+12400 to U+12473 (Numbers)
ISO 15924 Xsux
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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Child systems Old Persian, Ugaritic
Unicode range U+12000 to U+1236E (Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform)
U+12400 to U+12473 (Numbers)
ISO 15924 Xsux
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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historian is an individual who studies history and who writes on history.[1] The person may be an authority (or expert) over history,<ref name="wordnetprinceton" /> but this is not a requirement.
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Recorded history can be defined as history that has been written down or recorded by the use of language, whereas history is a more general term referring simply to information about the past.[1] It starts in the 4th millennium BC, with the invention of writing.
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printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring an image. The systems involved were first assembled in Germany by the goldsmith Johann Gutenberg in the 1430s.
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Titus Livius (traditionally 59 BC–AD 17[1]), known as Livy in English, was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental History of Rome, Ab Urbe condita
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The 1st century BC started the first day of 100 BC and ended the last day of 1 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. An alternative name for this century is the last century BC.
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Ab Urbe condita (literally, "from the city, having been founded") is a monumental history of Rome, from its legendary founding (ab Urbe condita, dated to 753 BC by Varro and most modern scholars). The book was written by Titus Livius (around 59 BC–AD 17).
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In historical scholarship, a primary source is a document, or other source of information that was created at the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described.
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Pyramids of Egypt are among the largest constructions ever built[1] and constitute one of the most potent and enduring symbols of Ancient Egyptian civilization. Most were built during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods[2].
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c. 2900 BC–2334 BC — Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period continue. c. 2600 BC — The Harappan civilization rises to become a powerful civilization. c. 2600 BC — Pre-Palace Period, phase I, in Crete (Mellersh 1970) c.
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Harappa (Urdu: ہڑپہ) is a city in Punjab, northeast Pakistan, about 35km (22 miles) southwest of Sahiwal.
The modern town is located near the former course of the Ravi River and also beside the ruins of an ancient fortifed city, which was part
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The modern town is located near the former course of the Ravi River and also beside the ruins of an ancient fortifed city, which was part
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State Party Pakistan
Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii
Reference 138
Region Asia-Pacific
Inscription History
Inscription 1980 (4th Session)
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Type Cultural
Criteria ii, iii
Reference 138
Region Asia-Pacific
Inscription History
Inscription 1980 (4th Session)
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Lothal (Gujarātī: લોથલ, IPA: [ˈloːtʰəl], English: Mound of the dead
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Herod_Archelaus